I’ve discussed the “Russian Investigation” on several occasions with people on all sides of the issue. The one thing I’ve discovered when attempting to delve into the complexities is that very few people have actually read through the – mostly public – documents that address the heart of the matter.

I thought it might be useful to provide a brief, high-level summary of the three key documents, make a few connections between them, and leave you with a few critical questions to ask as the Mueller Investigation, the Congressional Inquiries, and other resulting actions unfold over what promises to be at least the next few months.

These documents are inextricably intertwined, and I believe a working knowledge of each is essential to exploring the Trump Campaign’s interactions with Russia, and the possibility that there was or was not collusion and/or conspiracy with a foreign entity, along with potential related obstruction of justice infractions.

It’s a simple task to read The Steele Dossier and the Nunes Memo in their entirety. At 312 pages – a quick 312 – the Simpson Testimony is a different animal. I will try to summarize it for you by providing relevant takeaways so you don’t have to read the whole thing.

The Steele Dossier is a collection of research memos, each memo opening with an executive summary and then profiling detailed findings and sequences of events. Initially contracted by a Republican client of Fusion GPS (unnamed by Mr. Simpson in his Judiciary testimony, but often presumed to be the Ted Cruz Campaign), the Dossier’s funding was eventually subsumed by the DNC. Simpson’s testimony gave some insight into the document’s origins, but he did not name specific clients.

Simpson testified that such research is often contracted during the course of a critical election campaign, and his company Fusion GPS is one of the leaders in that field. It has produced intelligence for a wide range of clientele with subjects including: The Clintons, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, among many others.

The Steele Dossier documents three sets of issues, each – if true – of tremendous concern to all Americans. 1) Candidate Trump had a long and documentable history of business ties with Russian politicians, oligarchs and known mobsters. 2) Russian spies gathered intelligence information (aka Kompromat) sufficient to blackmail the Republican Nominee, Trump, and 3) With input from Team Trump, the Kremlin had authorized a campaign of espionage and disinformation designed to damage the Clinton candidacy and, if possible, swing the election to Trump.

That Trump has questionable business associates, many of them Russian, is well known. The Dossier notes corrupt ties to Asia as well, and the Russian campaign was also intended to distract from Trump’s illicit activities in Asia. Kompromat on Trump features videotape recordings of his escapades at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton in a presidential suite once occupied by Barack and Michelle Obama. According to the memo, the Golden Showers story is real.

Steele adds that Russia also gathered kompromat on Hillary Clinton, mostly recordings of phone calls she made in Russia as far back as her stint as First Lady, though nothing as prurient or damning as the Trump videos.

Obtaining compromising material on Hillary Clinton was a Russian priority, because they, like most, assumed she would win the 2016 Presidential Election. Russia uses kompromat as a tool to keep their political rivals in check. The espionage campaign might have two potential benefits: 1) Keep the election as close as possible, thereby minimizing Hillary Clinton’s mandate, and 2) Potentially get Trump elected, though the prospects of that happening seemed highly unlikely all the way to Election Day.

Participation from Trump officials aided the espionage campaign. The Dossier calls out three high-ranking Trump operatives: Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen became involved late in the campaign to cover up the trail of collusion. (He is suing Steele for implicating him in The Dossier).

The Dossier also discusses the breadth of the campaign on Trump’s behalf, including the hacking of sensitive e-mails and subsequent release through Wiki-Leaks. Intent was to turn Bernie Sanders supporters against Clinton, make embarrassing DNC information public, and otherwise undermine the Clinton Campaign’s credibility.

The Dossier contains a trove of information documenting Russia’s campaign to throw the election to Trump. It also details a method of disbursing payouts from a pension fund in Florida to hackers located throughout the U.S. The campaign was so potent and effective that the Kremlin and Putin had to curtail it during the run up to the U.S. Elections to maintain plausible deniability.

At least one high-ranking Russian official in favor of a more aggressive espionage campaign, Sergei Ivanov, was fired by Putin when Russian interference became so conspicuous that it caught the attention of the Obama Administration, U.S. Intelligence Agencies, and the U.S. Media.

Glenn Simpson’s Testimony alternates between two narratives: one, a Republican attempt to discredit the Steele Dossier and the motives of its sponsor, Fusion GPS. For the Democrats, a proxy for Sen. Dianne Feinstein elicits the narrative of a dialog between Simpson and Steele as Steele reports back on his findings. Simpson states that Steele’s reports of Russian attempts to sway the U.S. election, the possibility of a U.S. President susceptible to blackmail by a foreign agent (via video from Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton), and the Trump Campaign’s ongoing collaboration with Russian agents motivated them to report their findings to the FBI. When the FBI failed to act, they then leaked the Steele Dossier to the press.

While the Republican’s questioning does little to impugn Fusion GPS and Steele (whom Simpson characterizes as one of the best in the business and a “Boy Scout”), the story told by Simpson is both fascinating and infuriating. Especially so in light of the Nunes Memo released on February 2, 2018 and Republican attempts to paint the FBI as hostile to Trump and for some reason favoring the Clinton Campaign during the lead-up to election day in November 2016.

As Steele’s intelligence illuminated Russia’s plot to turn the U.S. Election to Trump, who they felt they had in their back pocket, Simpson and Steele agreed to share what they knew with the FBI. In mid-October, Steele met with an FBI contact in Rome and agreed to hand over all of his data to them.

Approximately one week prior to the U.S. Elections, the FBI fed a story to the New York Times implying that Russia had little to no impact on the election. FBI Director James Comey then delivered a memo to Congress indicating that e-mails from Huma Abedin’s phone discovered on Anthony Weiner’s computer could contain evidence of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton. Ultimately, those e-mails proved redundant. But the implication of more e-mail scandal clearly had a negative impact on Ms. Clinton.

Let’s review: the James Comey-led FBI – accused last week by Devin Nunes of anti-Trump bias and improperly obtaining FISA surveillance warrants on suspected Russian spy Carter Page – ignored evidence of a conspiracy by Russia, cast aspersions on Hillary Clinton one week before the election, and very well could have propelled Trump into the White House in the process.

The same FBI, loaded with Republicans including James Comey, (former Director) Bill Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, and Christopher Wray, that helped give the election to Trump, was in cahoots with the Democrats? That’s the conclusion The Nunes Memo attempts to draw.

If you’re familiar with The Steele Dossier and The Simpson Testimony, nothing prior to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election indicates any assistance given to Democrats by the FBI or the nation’s intelligence apparatus. Or the Deep State. It’s the Trump Campaign and the Russian Government throwing a Hail Mary to get Trump elected, with an assist from the FBI (and the New York Times). Against all odds, it worked.

We may never know what sparked the about face by James Comey following the election. Perhaps it was a bout of conscience. Maybe it was the pressing for loyalty by Donald Trump behind closed doors. It might even be that when Michael Flynn, who claimed no meetings or ties with the Russians, turned out to be lying, Comey decided that the right thing to do was to turn over all the rocks to see what the Trump Campaign was hiding. But if Trump was innocent, when he fired Comey, he unleashed the dogs of hell upon his very own Presidency.

The cloud of suspicion surrounding Trump, from Russia’s espionage campaign to Friday’s release of the Nunes Memo and beyond will play out on the World Stage. Republican Party attacks on the legitimacy of the FBI, along with the unprecedented release of the toxic Nunes Memo and the suppression of a Democratic rebuttal signal a nadir in Congressional partisanship. All to protect Trump.

Now what? House Republicans have tried, and apparently failed, to flip the script by undermining the findings of the Steele Dossier, depicting an unholy and historically unlikely fellowship of the FBI and Democrats. The Nunes Memo might also be a trial balloon designed to facilitate Trump’s version of Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre – firing Rod Rosenstein and successors until he can find someone to fire Mueller for him – under cover of what they were hoping would be a tide of popular sentiment.

It’s time to focus on two critical questions as the walls close in on Trump:

1) If there’s no collusion and no obstruction, why scorch the earth to discredit the FBI and derail the Mueller Investigation?

If Trump is innocent, how in the world would a Republican Senate, a Republican House and an intelligence bureau filled with Republicans and Trump appointees find him guilty of something he didn’t do? Unless…he did it.

The Steele Dossier, if corroborated, implicates the Russian Government and the Trump Presidential Campaign as in collusion/cahoots/conspiracy to throw the election to Trump. That would bring enough ammunition to nail anywhere from 4-10 Trump Staffers for conspiracy, and Trump himself for obstruction, at a minimum, to conspiring with a foreign state to defraud the U.S. Presidential Election process.

So, as the Mueller Investigation concludes, we will likely find out once and for all:

2) Is The Steele Dossier fact or fiction?

Everything rests on the corroboration or the refutation of The Steele Dossier. If it’s accurate, even partially, the Trump dominoes are going to fall. Including the Donald.

This might explain why, when it would be far more prudent and effective to weather the storm quietly, Trump, Nunes and their allies are going on the counter-attack, AKA, the defensive, while under scrutiny of a special investigator who, based on history and party affiliation, would seem to be inclined to find him innocent.

Donald Trump is a guy who’s done a lot of things. And a guy who’s been accused of a lot of things. Being good at appearing to be innocent is not one of them. From here, and these are certainly the cheap seats, albeit with ample reading light, President Trump sure looks and acts like he’s guilty. Or at least, like he thinks he’s going to be found guilty.

He certainly is not going to like it when faced with the inevitable question: what did he know, and when did he know it?

Keep reading. Keep asking questions. We shall see how it all plays out.

I’ve waited a long time for this day. More than 25 years, actually. And it’s bittersweet, but I’m ready, we’re ready, to have this conversation.

I was young, it was my first full-time job, and a dream come true. A full-time position writing the weekly newsletter and planning department events for Walt Disney Feature Animation. My first day on the job, I placed two Oscars won by The Little Mermaid in the Trophy Case. And I was quizzed point blank on my sexual orientation by one of the heads of the department.

What could I do? 26 years old, a straight, white guy from the midwest, and the biggest opportunity of my young life. I nodded and smiled, and listened politely as the sexual politics of this career opportunity were laid out before me. I wasn’t in Missouri any more.

But I forged ahead with the idealistic hope that nothing too crazy could happen to me if I stayed true to myself, aimed to deliver beyond all expectations, and stayed true to the values of the corporation. Ah, the naivete of youth.

I delivered week after week, no matter what. With tremendous exposure for an entry-level position, I turned the right heads over time, many times. My weekly newsletter was hand-delivered by me to the offices of the CEO and the President every Tuesday. Eighty Tuesdays. As time went on and I made the newsletter my own, I received a letter of thanks and encouragement (“we love your writing…you are very funny…” from the Office of Jeffrey Katzenberg. This was the reason why I came to Hollywood. A dream was coming true.

And yet, no matter what I did, I would always be subject to the whims of that one department head who “took an interest” in me. I wasn’t his direct report. I was supporting his production with a Wrap Party. But he took control of my career at Disney, checking in at least weekly to see if I would succumb to his overtures.

Was it obvious? No, it was surreptitious. This, it turns out, was one of the shrewdest, most political, deviously vicious people I’ve ever encountered. Think Jafar from Aladdin. And he is still in a position of tremendous power in Hollywood, and on Broadway.

Did I realize what was happening while it was happening? Well, I knew I clearly had a problem in this guy. But what was I going to do? He had all the power. The game was clear, and he controlled it. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was screwed. Figuratively, of course. I would never trade my integrity, sexual or otherwise, for a promotion. This is a trait forged by the fire of my experience, and it has served me well over the years because I survived what followed.

When it fully dawned on me that my opportunity was becoming compromised by the choice I was being presented, I asked my boss’ secretary for advice dealing with this guy. She knew the players, and warned me to be careful and keep moving forward. As several awkward one-on-one meetings to discuss the Wrap Party ensued, I recall trying to end one meeting in his office that kept dragging uncomfortably on with personal conversation and innuendo.

Me: “Time to get back to business.”
Him: “I’ll give you the business.”

There was a sinister sneer underlying his comment. It was made from inappropriately close proximity. He knew I was in a relationship, and he had met my girlfriend a few weeks before. I laughed off his proposition, and left the room untouched. That’s when things began to unravel.

My hours – which started at 60 hours a week, no less – got even longer. Years later, a girlfriend applying for a job in Disney’s Theatrical Marketing Group told me she was told by a friend already working in the department that she would not get home before midnight until she fucked one of the department heads. Nice.

The hours increased, and ticky tack complaints about my work from my harasser and his crony, President of the Division, escalated. My health began to noticeably deteriorate. Huge welts appeared on my face and chest. Stress reactions. The first time I’d ever encountered such a physical reaction to a situation in my life.

Our internal HR staffer took me aside, and told me that there was internal conversation about the breakouts visible on my face. He told me, at great risk of his career at Disney, that I was on my way to a constructive discharge and recommended that I file for Workers Comp. That way they couldn’t fire me, and I could keep my job while working my complaint (stress through excessive job hours) through the System.

Unlike this very generous and brave co-worker, the System was not my friend. Filing Worker’s Comp was akin to declaring war. My days were officially numbered. In retrospect, of course, they were already unofficially numbered. My boss was pissed. And kind of screwed.

Nice guy, but didn’t lift a finger to help me. He knew what was happening, and he knew the character of the people involved. But he had 30 years at the company and a family to support. So he did nothing. I later found out that he, too, was fired from the department, along with all of the other men on the Admin Team, within three years. This was the first purge by the Gay Mafia at Disney (made famous in the Michael Ovitz trial), and it happened in the mid-1990s.

The next chapter of my saga went on for about 8 more months. I call that time, “The Meat Grinder.” I would continue to get tactical advice from our internal HR Rep. He had no power to actually help me, and was risking his own job every time he gave me advice. Some of the items he suggested would be beneficial in case I decided to file a lawsuit down the line. It was also helpful to have someone on the inside who understood what was happening and wanted to do the right thing. Though from a business standpoint there was nothing he could do.

I told my story, in its entirety, to Corporate HR. The Rep was very interested to hear what I had to say. Then he did absolutely nothing to address the situation. My harasser was powerful – very powerful within the Company, though that was nothing compared to the power he holds there now. By standing up for myself in this extremely awkward and potentially nuclear situation (from a PR standpoint: producer of Disney Animated films sexually harasses young staff coordinator, pre-Anita Hill). For Disney HR, I was basically a problem to be handled.

At that time (1991), Disney had the power to adjudicate its own Workers Comp issues internally. So they made a case against me while I continued to do my job. I performed admirably under the circumstances, knowing any slip-up could get me fired for cause.

I stayed even later hours to be sure to get everything done. I documented all of my communications at work with everyone that meant anything (the CYA file). I even wrote a Simpsons teleplay on spec in the hopes of getting drafted into their writing corps. A colleague helped me get the script read by Simpsons producer David Silverman, who gave me a ton of constructive criticism and asked me to write another one. But at that time, that’s all I had in me. My brain was melting.

Ultimately, the Workers Comp claim led to three official meetings at Disney’s discretion with a detective, a doctor and a psychiatrist. All under Disney’s employ.

The detective went first. He was by far the most objective. As I told him my story, he listened intently, asked a lot of questions, recording the answers on tape. When we got to the part of the narrative that led to my predicament, he snapped off the recording device and spoke to me, person-to-person. This was a textbook case of sexual harassment. I needed to document what happened, look up and understand what sexual harassment is, and get a lawyer to help me through, or out, of this situation. He made it clear that I was not going to be able to work through this with the studio on my own, despite my wishes to the contrary.

He was right. And honest. And helpful. I followed his advice, even getting input from two of my cousins who are both lawyers. One who now does personal injury, and the other who is a lawyer in the entertainment business. They advised against going the legal route. Neither of them was interested in being the first lawyer to go up against Disney in a public sexual harassment lawsuit. Though I’m sure there have been hundreds of cases filed or settled against the famous Disney harassment culture since. Just ride it out, they advised. Try to find another job within the company.

But that wasn’t happening. And I couldn’t quit, either. My medical bills (GPs, dermatologists, eventually allergists and nutritionists) were in the thousands. Without a job, and insurance, I would have been bankrupt within months. I was going to be at Disney until they 1) acknowledged Workers Comp (which probably would have set them up for a massive lawsuit), 2) fixed the situation internally, or 3) fired me.

The psychiatrist was next. He asked many deeply personal questions, apparently in the hope of finding some psychological grounds for my dispute. He was mean, got super personal, and I think he even plays a psychiatrist in the movies. No quarter there.

The Doctor told me point blank that I was going to be fired for filing the complaint.

Ostensibly they were investigating to decide if I was the victim of massive job-related stress. I had welts on my face and my chest like I’d never experienced before. Dozens. But proving workers comp by stress is a very tough case to make. Especially when the studio owns the final decision.

Not surprisingly, Disney ruled in Disney’s favor. Soon thereafter, I was constructively discharged.

Between the date that I finished the investigative process and when they let me go, I ran into the man who sexually harassed me out of my first full-time job. He was coming out of one of the buildings Feature Animation utilized in Glendale. Back then, we were scattered across five locations.

A few years later, they built a beautiful animation building on the studio lot, a reward for the success of the films that were produced in that era: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. In my short time at the studio, I supported each of those productions, which have all earned billions in revenues for The Walt Disney Company. I was paid about $7 an hour for the approximately 19 months worth of 60-100 hour weeks I served at the House of the Mouse.

My harasser looked ragged, messed up, disheveled in a way I’d never seen him before. This guy was meticulous. Master of his carefully developed image. I couldn’t tell whether his state had something to do with my workers comp claim, which was being handled by the studio as a potential sexual harassment lawsuit, or some other Disney-related stress. But I gave him a ride, mostly in awkward silence, to another part of the campus, and never saw him in person again.

As I said, he is still with The Walt Disney Company, and among its most highly paid and powerful executives. He even appeared once on The Bachelorette, an ABC show, and gave sage marriage advice to the bachelorette and her suitor. I found that somewhat ironic.

As for me, it took years to work through the anger and pain of that massive unfairness. Looking back, I still have feelings about the experience. But it doesn’t own me like it did in the 90s. It took three years to undo the stress bomb that led to all of the breakouts. The solutions: rest, regular exercise, and a massive restriction of diet. Plus a complete avoidance of any and all employment by The Walt Disney Company.

I did heal and found another path to success that led me into the technology business and Symantec Corporation. I told Symantec HR I would never work for another corporation like Disney, and they promised me that if I hated working for Disney, I would love working for them. Symantec kept its promise, and I spent 10 super-productive years there, providing my life with some much-needed stability.

Since then I am going on 14 years in the business of dance music and events. I have a business (The Cruz Coalition, with my business partner Art Cruz), and as a DJ and music producer I am doing things and having experiences I couldn’t have dreamt of when I was an aspiring, and idealistic, young writer/producer at Disney. Who knows what would have become of me had I stayed in the Disney salt mines with its legions of abused.

Clearly some idealism and naivete was left behind at Mauschwitz. But not all. Which is one of the reasons I never sued. Sometimes I wonder, if I had filed suit, could I have stopped that guy from harassing others. Maybe. Or maybe the pressure of being Anita Hill before Anita Hill in my already fragile state would have crushed me for good. I did try to tell my story to the Los Angeles Times before the statute of limitations expired, but they never followed up.

I’ll tell you one thing though – I believed Anita Hill. And she is a hero for standing up and telling her story, although it didn’t stop America from putting that cretin Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

But I will never forget what happened to me at Disney. And I will always hold tremendous empathy for those who are made victim by the insidiousness of sexual politics. And I’m grateful that the day has come when we can talk about how it’s wrongfully impacting our world and our system. Think of all the people who abused their power to coerce sex, and then used that same power to either promote or demote their victims based on personal whims, desires and fears.

I am grateful that #metoo is shining a light on this issue. Sexual politics exists in many forms, and can move in many directions, though almost always for the powerful and against the powerless. Think of all the unhealthy and unfair choices that are made when sex inappropriately enters the work place. So many lives and paths irrevocably changed. While we may never be able to undo that unfairness, let’s learn from it and make the future a place where the consequences are greater, where sexual abuse and sexual harassment are far less likely to happen.

While I’m trying not to let the dismal tide of American political regression and the nasty, nasty turn in our discourse dominate my thinking and writing, from time to time I believe it will be productive, and therapeutic, to throw out new ideas and view events in America from various angles as a means of gaining perspective.

I’m also finding it challenging to dig deeper into the issues without stepping on toes. Politics, like religion, is so deeply personal. It’s just not easy to analyze or discuss these topics without treading upon someone’s deeply held beliefs. I apologize in advance to anyone who’s offended, or strongly disagrees.

Of course, it’s my right to express my ideas and opinions. And I absolutely welcome thought from all points of the ideological spectrum. Though it’s easy to say, “Don’t take it personally,” beliefs are, first and foremost, personal. Despite this, I hope we can engage in dialogue in the spirit of openness, understanding and earnestness with the intention – my intention, at least – of advancing the greater good.

Though it’s impossible to set aside the recent election and discount all that was said on the campaign trail, I’d like to consider a different Donald Trump for the moment. Over the next four years we’ll find out whether Candidate Trump was truly sincere, or if he was just saying shit to get elected.

That the things he said actually worked may or may not be related to his own perceived likelihood of winning. By the shocked look on his face late on Election Night, Donald Trump seemed as surprised as the rest of us. The reality of the Presidency brings with it a world of considerations that apparently never crossed his mind while he scorched Earth on the campaign trail.

Yes, he’s considering a Wall, or maybe it’s a fence, mass deportation, and a Muslim registry, along with a handful of odious staff and cabinet nominations. As offensive and just wrong as all of that is, Trump also appears to be backpedaling on “Lock Her Up,” total repeal of Obamacare, climate issues and maybe more. We shall see.

The Trump I’d like to take a closer look at right now is the Donald Trump of “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.” I watched the better part of four seasons of the show, finding it instructive to observe corporate business while not being subject to the petty bullshit. How real this reality show really was is open to debate. But it does provide a window into Donald Trump’s leadership style and values. To the point where it may be valuable to re-run some of those shows to show our new President in action. It might even be reassuring.

Am I saying Donald Trump will be an excellent President because as the Boss of The Apprentice he did some good, maybe even very good things? Not necessarily. But he does seem capable of running a small to mid-size boutique business and may also have the makings of a decent curator and developer of talent.

I have no idea if his strengths as exhibited on a television reality show will translate into anything positive in terms of world leadership. And I do believe his willingness to give quarter to a vast array of misanthropic, racist and sexist ideologues is going to be a problem for all of us in the next four years. Does every one of his appointees need to be chosen from the dregs of the Republican Party? But here are a few things I do find interesting:

In The Celebrity Apprentice, Trump watched everyone closely and carefully. Maybe it made for good TV, or it’s just a part of his management style, he had a way of finding the good in people who were different and even helping them develop their talent. Some were unpopular. Some were just plain odd. Dennis Rodman, La Toya Jackson, Gary Busey, and Piers Morgan come to mind. With characters like Rodman and Busey, Trump genuinely tried to develop them into a better version of their selves, in spite of, and sometimes even because of, their shortcomings.

Take a look at some of the casting choices. Jose Canseco. Darryl Strawberry. Andrew Dice Clay. Rod Blagojevich. Trump took on some hard cases. Of course, he also enabled some truly wretched personalities and deplorable behavior. Omarosa, a Trump protégé, is a revolting human being. She is a vicious, conniving cheater, one of those people who make going to the office a demoralizing chore for even the most idealistic, chipper employee. NeNe Leakes was a bully and a brat. And Gary Busey is clearly insane on one or more levels.

On the other hand, Trump spotted something in Lil Jon, Trace Adkins, Rodman, La Toya Jackson, Bret Michaels…and he invested. There are examples of Trump getting it right on The Apprentice, too, pulling players out of obscurity and into opportunity. He also knows the value of having and hearing a team of advisors he trusts. Undoubtedly, Trump ran with a team of questionable-to-lousy characters – Steve Bannon, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, KellyAnne Conway, Newt Gingrich – and was elected President of the United States. The Bad News Bears Go to Washington.

Is any of the above germane? Does The Apprentice translate? Might there be a sliver of a chance that Trump has a knack for finding diamonds in the rough and polishing them up? I am doing my best to hold my nose and hold out hope. Because while I’m repulsed by the vile racist, sexist, threat-laced hate-speech spewed by President-Elect Trump and so many of his staff and supporters throughout the campaign, here we are once again with a fully Republican government.

The last time that happened, eight short years ago, things got historically bad. And though a million and a half more voters and counting chose Hillary Clinton, the electorate, and a clear majority of the States, gave us Trump. Like it or not, it’s his government until he loses it. Perhaps Trump will even find a person or two from across the aisle to help him round out his cabinet and provide a little balance to his vision. A truly great businessman would do that. How about Trump?

I’m willing to make psychic space for Trump to exceed my low expectations. Maybe he can stop being a petty blowhard, inciting hate-mongers in his constituency to pit them against all who disagree. Hoping that enormous ego will keep him on his toes as Chief Executive of an infinitely more intricate and challenging constituency of stakeholders, apprentices and just plain America citizens who need this President-Elect to be as great as he says he is.

So the other shoe dropped on Tuesday, and it landed on Hillary Clinton’s head.

The so-called shoo-in, who was given a greater than 90% chance of winning just prior to the election by media outlets like The New York Times and Huffington Post wound up with anywhere from 2-4 million more popular votes than President-elect Trump. However, Trump took every single Swing State and significantly won the electoral vote.

With two popular vote wins and electoral vote defeats in 16 years, of course, The Democratic Party would now like to end the electoral vote. Nothing like waiting for something to break until you fix it. Of course, had this happened to Republicans even once ever before (it hasn’t; and there’s a reason for that), we wouldn’t be discussing the Electoral College any more. It would be over. Maybe that’s something we can learn from the Republican Party.

Plenty of lessons to be learned from the 2016 U.S. Elections; many of them lessons to be re-learned. With not very much time or perspective since last Tuesday, though it feels like forever since a Trump Win was nothing more than a bad dream, I’ll try to point out a few of them:

1) America Sucks at Politics. Our political system is a cesspool. Those now charged with Draining the Swamp are some of the worst actors in its history and will likely pollute it even more. We don’t discuss or debate issues in public or private well, if at all. We never wind up with the best candidates in the final election. And we are about to get what we asked for. So the blame should start with us.

2) Non-Voters Kill Democracy. If you didn’t vote, for whatever reason other than being wrongfully stripped from the rolls, you have no excuses and you are hurting this country. It’s as simple as that. Your vote is your voice. If you didn’t use it, you delegated that to everyone else who did. I believe we should fine or tax everyone who is eligible and doesn’t vote a minimum of $250.00 every election.

3) Until we have a meaningful Third Party in the U.S., voting for a third party candidate is a waste of a vote. Almost the same as not voting. Maybe a little bit better because it required at least a tiny amount of actual effort. If there was an intention behind the choice: intending to vote against both Trump and Hillary, then good for you. But if you thought that by voting for the Third Party you’d still wind up with the “lesser of two evils” (i.e., not Trump), you were wrong. As were the polls.

4) The Polls Know Nothing. Every single national poll was wrong except one: The USC Dornsife/LA Times poll. The reason they got it right when everyone else got it wrong: they polled a large sample, and the same sample, every time. Everything else is guesswork, and the guesses and methodologies all missed because it was impossible to find a representative sample in this election. There’s a reason for that.

5) Trump Voters Didn’t All Identify As Trump Voters. Not everyone who voted for Trump was wearing a Make America Great Again hat. In fact, anti-Trump hyperbole kept many from stating their intentions out loud: to friends, to family, to pollsters, to the world. Until it came time to vote. Trump’s campaign activated parts of the electorate that hadn’t voted in years. While Hillary’s campaign failed to activate many whose interests she clearly favored: blacks, Hispanics, women. Each of these demographics supported Obama by a much greater percentage than they did Hillary, despite promises from Trump that should have had them worried sick. Turns out, worried sick doesn’t equate to voter turnout. Not this time.

6) The Problem With Hillary. Turns out her flaws were enough to sink her. A few to consider (while keeping in mind she took a higher percentage of voters than Gore in 2000, JFK in 1960, and Nixon in 1968): She is part of the political establishment. Her campaign and close advisors were insiders and out of touch. The e-mail server issue hurt her, in spite of nothing specific ever being tied to the practice. Wiki-Leaks document leaks, targeted against Hillary to the benefit of Trump, were extremely damaging, especially those that convinced Sanders supporters that the DNC was biased against Bernie. Count Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as a huge loser of this campaign. DNC needs a massive re-boot.

7) Know Your Audience. Trump knew whom he was talking to. He pushed all their buttons, and did it again and again. I’m not sure who Hillary was targeting with her ads and campaign, but she sure didn’t get the votes she needed from women, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. It’s tougher to target your campaign well when you don’t know who may secretly be OK with the sexism, race-baiting, anti-Semitism, and 20th Century thinking. But isn’t that the job of the professional politicians to know?

Also, you will find out who is and who isn’t OK with Trump in coming days because his fans no longer have to keep their support a secret. He won, so it’s OK for them to tell you you’re wrong for calling him an idiot. Or a sexist, race-baiting neo-fascist. Or – and you can accept or reject this based on your beliefs – to give him a chance.

What many of us hoped would be a relative return to normalcy after the campaign is now looking like a “new normal.” And it’s plenty scary. Both Trump’s victory speech and his Sunday night interview on 60 Minutes offered some conciliatory words, and in turn, a glimmer of hope for those despairing of a Trump Presidency. But now that Trump has power, rather than is attempting to gain it, what he says will take a back seat to what he does. And we’re going to need to be watching closer than ever to see what he does. Especially if he makes good on his promise of obstructing the view of the media, and thus, Us.

I’m concerned about some of the various Bad Actors from recent U.S. political history who will find a home, voice and legitimacy in the Trump Administration. A few of those are: Steve Bannon, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Corey Lewandowski and John Bolton. Most of these guys are in Trump’s inner-inner-circle. And all of them have something ugly in their recent histories.

I’m intrigued by the roles of KellyAnne Conway, clearly Trump’s MVP down the stretch of the election, his daughter Ivanka and her husband. Also, Peter Thiel of Gawker and formerly Facebook.

And I’m disappointed in fringe-players like Julian Assange and Wiki-Leaks, who proclaim to be for transparency but clearly had an axe to grind against Hillary Clinton in their one-sided handling of hacked and leaked documents. And Jeff Zucker, the heinous former head of NBC who turned CNN into Fox News Lite during this election cycle with the ludicrous hiring of Corey Lewandowski and a policy of airing all Trump, all the time that provided his campaign with a ton of free publicity.

But I’m hopeful for a lot of reasons, too. I’m hopeful that a Hillary Clinton loss might end up being a gain for the future of the Democratic Party: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Corey Booker and more. I’m hopeful that by electing an outsider (we’ll see how business-as-usual he is or isn’t), we might see some changes in Washington, DC and U.S. politics that could help us going forward.

I’m hopeful, as always, that this country and we as people will learn from these new and haunting mistakes. Though I’m not holding my breath. And I’m hopeful that the surprise I saw election night on Trump’s face may actually have betrayed the tiniest hint of a sense of humility in victory. That he won’t be the sexist, race-baiting fascist liar he was on the campaign trail. That Super-Ego Trump will triumph over Super-Id Trump. And that now that he’s President, a sense of “how can I do a good job” will prevail over “how do I avenge all wrongs ever done to me since I was a kid.”

I’m hoping. And I’m watching. And I’ll be working even harder. Quitting accomplishes nothing. Apathy is a vice. And disappointment can become opportunity if we are willing to take the longer, harder, higher road it presents to us.

Well, it took four days and the proverbial shoe dropped. Not exactly the other shoe, because it’s as if shoes have been whizzing past our heads for nearly a year now.

Someone in a position of authority who could do something, anything to influence the election did exactly that, and a contest that was on the path to a clear and healthy conclusion looks like it’s headed to a dangerous photo finish.

Thanks, James Comey, 6’8” Director of the FBI. You’ve managed to tap into America’s ADHD-addled media cycle with earth-shattering non-news a mere eleven days before we put Democracy at risk by possibly electing Donald Trump – the choice of neo-Nazis, the KKK, the Russian Mob and Haters Everywhere – President of the U.S..

Comey’s letter to Congress had everything, and nothing, to throw the whole ball of wax into a vat of molten lava: a vague accusation with zero substance; a reference to a completed investigation that uncovered no criminal activity or intent but has been used as a political albatross; a connection to the ugly, sexually deviant actions of the soon to be ex-spouse of one of Hillary Clinton’s closest advisors, and the insinuation of corruption that continues to feed the false equivalency keeping a sociopath with BPD on the precipice of the most powerful elected office in the world.

And here is where America takes the final test: are we really so horrible at politics that we would follow through with the insanity of putting him in office? Or are we merely lousy enough at it to come close to scaring the free world into thinking we could do something so irresponsible (like intentionally bankrupting our country) but then steering away like a truck driver playing chicken with the cliff-side of a freeway?

I honestly don’t know.

But here’s what I can say for sure: I hope we’re better than that. I hope we don’t make the mistake of all of our lifetimes next Tuesday. I hope we don’t take the folly of electing George W. Bush (twice) and multiply it a thousand-fold by electing Donald J. Trump the Pussy Grabber who won’t show his tax returns, lost every single debate to Hillary and ran a campaign like a Middle Eastern dictator President of the United States. I hope. I hope. I hope.

Meanwhile, how about them Cubs? Best team in baseball this year, erased a 3-1 deficit to force a 7th game of the World Series. Comebacks are fun in professional sports. In World Politics, with our lives and freedoms at stake, not so much.

And so it’s Hillary Clinton or the ugliest four years of our lives. Get out and vote for her, and tell your friends to vote, too. For this country. For the people. For our children.

I moved to Los Angeles many moons ago because I love a good story. I love being told one, and when I came here I wanted to learn how to tell one.

Decades, and many stories read, seen, lived and re-told later, it’s the love of a great story that motivates, inspires, and transfixes me. Still.

At least 13 times since the story that begins, “Once upon a time, a billionaire horse’s ass ran for President,” began, I’ve sat down to make head or tail, divine fact from fiction, or just try to sort some sense out of it all. This makes fourteen. And hopefully it will be the second time I will get a complete, published column out of it.

What makes this time different? Unlike the last dozen or so, I’m not actually going to try to reach an understanding about any of this. First, as you know, that Donald Trump is one election away from the highest office in the world is insane. Although I think it’s also true that America is getting out of our government almost exactly what we’ve put into the political process. As a nation, and individuals. We don’t do politics well in the United States, and it shows.

Second, every time I’ve taken a guess at what will happen next, something totally and completely absurd takes place, usually within the 12 hours between first draft and publication. Rendering what I’ve written passé, or worse, wrong. Though it’s as challenging to discern right from wrong this election cycle as it is up from down in outer space. Not easy to be presci
ent and grounded when gravity is in a state of flux.

So this time around, I am going to step back and admire the show. We are being treated to a once in a lifetime (I hope) spectacle. The first democratically nominated woman is competing with the first bonafide imbecile nominee (for President, Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle fans) to become the most powerful human being on the planet. Two firsts. Two distinctly different directions. A decision, respect to those who believe God decides all, riding on the free – such as it is – will of Americans who exercise our prerogative to vote.

How exciting!!

It’s a contest, much in the sense that the World Series, which begins tomorrow, is a contest. It’s a match-up brewing for months in a campaign marked by surprise performances, injuries, and no small amount of controversy. Barring a repeat of the 2000 vote, which failed to end on the Wednesday after Election Tuesday, we will likely know the winner of Clinton vs. Trump on Nov. 9 as surely as we’ll know who wins the World Series between the Indians and the Cubs on or before November 3, barring wildly inclement weather.

Of course it’s not the same. The comparisons and contrasts between these two contests for world dominion don’t come and go like a nine inning game, or a date on the calendar. But I love a good story. Don’t you? And in the next two weeks, we get to witness the culmination of two epic tales. So let’s get ready for a dramatic finish.

World Series Preview

It’s the Cubs vs. the Indians. Two underdogs of history battled their way to the top of the National League and American League Central Divisions, respectively, and through the playoffs to the World Series, Best of 7.

The Indians – managed by Tito Francona, who in 2004 as manager of the Boston Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino in the 100th World Series – have a chance to spoil the Cubs’ happy ending. Cleveland, whose NBA team the Cavaliers won its first title this year in June, hasn’t won a World Series since 1948. That’s 68 years, a mighty long time. So they’re hungry. But not quite as hungry as Chicago.

Consider the Cubs, owners of the best record in baseball this year. Their General Manager is Theo Epstein, also GM of the curse-breaking 2004 Red Sox. The Cubs last went to the World Series in 1945, but their last championship was in 1908. That’s 108 years ago. So if you were born in 1909 or later, you’ve never seen the Chicago Cubs win a World Series. If you’re from Chicago, or an avid fan of baseball, the first World Series win in more than a century is a very big deal.

Plenty of other story lines to follow and enjoy here. You can root for whichever team has your sympathy. Or passion. And we can watch it all the twists, turns and crazy bounces un-fold in front of us. One long championship drought will come to an end on or by Wednesday, November 2. Barring rain or snow in Cleveland or Chicago.

Presidential Preview

What was originally billed as the Battle of the Century may be all over but the shouting. Alleged billionaire and actual reality TV show host Donald Trump has turned the U.S. Presidential election into a game of “I Know You Are But What Am I” versus bent but unbroken former First Lady, Senator of New York and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Trump rode “Celebrity Apprentice” and a racist conspiracy theory about our first African-American President Barack Obama to a Republican Party nomination by out-polling more than two dozen conservative politicians who let Trump beat them again and again to the bottom of the barrel.

A story that opened with Trump as loud-mouthed bigot, launching semi-calculated attacks against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, women and virtually all immigrants in a country of immigrants was enough to convince the Republican Party to give him its nomination and endorsement. The national election has devolved into a scorched-earth campaign, with the candidate inciting violence at rallies, making fun of the physically disabled at his rallies, and exposed on tape in 2005 denigrating women and espousing unwelcome sexual assault while his wife was pregnant with their son.

The ghostwriter of his book, “The Art of the Deal” estimates Trump’s vocabulary at 200 words. He is ego-driven, hubris-laden, intensely humor-less (have you ever seen him laugh?), and anti-everything. Handed a gift horse – leaked e-mail, a vague policy point that manages to stick – he returns to the vitriol that won over his Coalition of the Angry or finds a new axe to grind. Either he secretly wants to lose, or he’ll only lead those who buy into his rhetoric as President (increasingly unlikely), or the head of an anti-establishment media juggernaut that he will have ample money and constituency to build post-election.

Meanwhile, the aspiring first female President wants to win so badly she will cop to that goal in a world where the only way to be perceived as trustworthy for the job is to profess disdain for it. Running the old-fashioned way: establishing credentials, building a national organization, and delineating specific policies, Hillary Clinton has spent 8 years in the White House, 8 years in the senate, 4-ish years as Secretary of State, and nearly 20 years beating back partisan attacks which have landed her in the hot seat (but not the slammer) where she has shown grace under pressure.

After two decades of scrutiny she’s accomplished a great deal as first lady and as a politician, and otherwise fared pretty well. Unless you count low approval ratings in spite of being one of the most accomplished female politicians in the history of the country and one of the most experienced candidates in the history of the Presidency. You can hate her policies, but can’t deny she has gobs of experience.

If you believe in polls, and I do, though not as much as I believe in math and science, Trump was closing the gap until they debated on the same stage. Secretary Clinton ran rings around The Donald. Every. Single. Time. Since Donald started scaring sensible Americans and global markets that he might be able to win, he has made a series of miscues, misstatements, angry pronunciations, and legitimacy destroying assertions that rank somewhere between implosion and full-scale meltdown.

But like the World Series, it ain’t over till it’s over. In this case, the end may not come with a sportsmanlike concession, but a procedural counting of every vote, individual and electoral. Like any contest with something at stake – and this year, clearly more is at stake than ever – there’s a dazzling array of last-minute spoilers that could tip the outcome one way or another. In case the undecideds haven’t decided already.

Here are a few hypotheticals: a hacked e-mail or Wiki-Leak that links the Clintons with the Mussolinis. A stunning last minute display of sanity from Trump that convinces voters he wouldn’t bring on the apocalypse; all evidence to the contrary. Trump’s character arc takes him from loud-mouthed bigot to anti-establishment statesman, turning the proverbial sow’s ear into a silk purse. Fat. Chance.

How about a Bob Roberts-inspired assassination conspiracy attempt blamed on a liberal gunman to evoke sympathy for the orange-faced blowhard? So much voter apathy – perhaps the point of Trump’s scorched-earth strategy – that the anti-Trump vote stays home, covers its ears, and leaves the voting to his Deplorables. We’ve got to get a song out of that “basket of deplorables” line. Perhaps a “rigging” conspiracy causes Trump supporters to turn up at the polls armed to the teeth, discouraging Hillary supporters from pulling the levers.

Like the Curse of the Billy-Goat, or the legacy of Steve Bartman, will force majeure lend a hand? Or will experience, depth, preparation and competence prevail? The World Series is decided between the lines by the Indians and the Cubs. The election is up to us. Here’s hoping that the best team wins. And by the best team, I mean Hillary Clinton. Putting Donald Trump within one election of the U.S. Presidency is one of the worst games America has ever played with itself.

Tomorrow is a big day, and I feel it’s time to speak up on some ideas I’ve been knocking around lately.

I’ve tried to jump into the flow of political discourse this year with several full-length columns, but have scrapped them for one reason or another. Mostly because every time it feels like we hit a new crazy, I try to dissect it and discuss but then another, newer, crazier crazy is born.

This year, expectations have truly been defied. Along with logic, common sense, and the boundaries of the absurd. Hard to know what to compare it to without being hyperbolic. So I’ll just say, these are heady times. Strap on your seatbelt. And prepare yourself for a rocky ride on the rollercoaster that is the United States.

There are three people running in the California Presidential primary on Tuesday who will gather the lion’s share of attention and votes. Two of them, I believe, could make excellent Presidents of the United States. The third represents one of the most epic and downright scary choices this country would have ever made.

So let’s not make it. Please. At all costs. And now let’s take a moment to consider our worthy contenders:

Hillary Clinton has been there. She was a major part of her husband’s extremely successful 8-year tenure in the White House. Bill Clinton was a charismatic and positive leader who took this country a long way. Mostly in the right direction. If you’ve ever been a part of a winning team, you know that it stays with you. And you know that no matter what the role, or whatever credit you receive, succeeding at a difficult task is a tremendous reward in itself. Plus you get more.

From there, Hillary chose to gain experience. As a leader; as a senator. There she landed on the right side and the wrong side of some big issues. And learned even more about how government works. And doesn’t. As Secretary of State, one of the most important jobs in the land, she spent four challenging years cleaning up America’s diplomatic mess overseas. Save for two contentious episodes (Benghazi and the private e-mail server; small potatoes IMO), she was a part of another tremendously successful presidential team.

The Barack Obama Presidency has been remarkable. Against all odds. And every kind of opposition. Obama has succeeded with patience, diplomacy, and by and large dignity and eloquence. He, along with his Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and another presidential Secretary, John Kerry, has helped pull America back together. Oh, it’s still a mess. But Barack Obama takes no blame there. He’s achieved so much in 8 years. But we are far from healed as a country.

For me, Hillary’s experience and years of taking unwarranted neo-conservative heat means a lot. I feel confident that as President she will lead America well.

Then there’s Bernie.

Because of his belief system, his willingness to address issues from an incredibly healthy place, and his ability to inspire the hardest to impress, Bernie can well be classified a once in a lifetime candidate. Not since Kennedy has so much confidence and Hope been inspired. Though Barack made a run at that legacy, too.

Bernie’s elevated the dialogue for what I hope is a very long time. And whether he becomes the President or not, I hope we will have a candidate every election who takes us on this ride. It’s not too much to ask at all. Would that we had better choices and every election in America will have at least one World Class candidate. Though that day seems a long way away.

And while I intend to cast my vote on Tuesday for the candidate I believe is best, I realize that my vote is only one of many in a highly convoluted process. I cast it as a wish, and a promise to do my best to elevate the truest and brightest. And support an American Dream that applies to 100% of us, not 10% or 1% or less.

Which brings me to the one thing I’d like for everyone who is with me so far to agree upon, regardless of whether they’re for Hillary or Bernie. Whoever wins the Democratic Party’s nomination, we’ve got to all come together to avoid electing a fascist candidate, one who by all indications will take us down many, many dark and dangerous paths. Many of which could have tremendous, unpredictable consequences. No matter what, we’ve got to come together.

Can we please all agree on that? Vote your heart and your mind and your passion on Tuesday. Do that as much as you can whenever you vote. Please also consider what we need to succeed as a Team. Compromise. Understanding. Hard work. Sometimes not loving the way things work out while still learning, growing, and focusing energy on the positive. Seeing the big picture.

When and what got you involved in this election? What made you start thinking and talking about it? Let it keep you motivated throughout the summer, through the National election, and all that follow. This nation needs more earnest, engaged people who want to do what they can on every level.

Sometimes that’s taking on a role you’d much rather not. Being a team player. And recognizing that a win for our side is more important than a loss for the big picture, even if you come out smelling like a rose. Tough lesson. Not super fun. But essential. We need those team players now more than ever.

That’s all I’m saying. Keep on talking. Vote, and encourage others to as well. And please get involved with a system that no one likes because no one feels empowered by it. Decide to be involved and you will be empowered.

Maybe one day all Presidential candidates will be as qualified and full of potential as Bernie and Hillary. Until then, and even after, there’s a lot of work to be done.

As a journalist and media critic, I try to avoid opining on issues where I don’t have first-hand information, or at least solid source data. It felt comfortable commenting on the security and business issues around the Sony Hack and The Interview film censorship because I had some insight on that piece of the story, and a different angle: namely, that North Korea may not have been behind the hack, and regardless of the culprit, Sony’s culpability is worth contemplating.

Attempting to find the most apt metaphor for the event, I’d compare the Hack to having your office burglarized…after leaving the door open, and putting a sign on it that says: “Tons of valuable stuff here. I dare you to help yourself to any or all of it.”

Now that I’ve seen the film, The Interview, I have a whole new take on the entire episode. This is not just about a remote hack of the Sony Entertainment IT network. This is about how a gigantic producer of media content, one of the top 10 producers in the world, is spiritually, intellectually, and behaviorally detached from the actual substance of what it creates. And it didn’t take a hack to disconnect them. The Hack just showed the world that the chasm exists.

It isn’t merely ironic that the story of The Interview parallels the story of the Sony Hack on just about every level. It is a fiction that shines light on the truth. Without spoiling the plot in any way, if the Sony Corporate heads were the protagonists of their own film The Interview, the movie would have ended in the first act because they didn’t have the guts to stand up to the leader of North Korea, much less try to assassinate him.

It would be far easier to support Sony’s position if the film was a piece of shit. Something that the rumor mill at one point attempted to pin on the Seth Rogen / James Franco buddy/action/comedy. Not only is this film a worthy successor to the huge comedy hits Pineapple Express and This Is The End, it does those movies one better by having a real political point that is made and redeemed by the story.

Sony Pictures tried to water down the ending of the film prior to The Hack, backing away from the film’s message in the process. It then allowed threats, which may or may not have been from North Korea, to coerce them into pulling from release one of the best comedies of the year, and one of the best political comedies in years.

The Interview is, in my opinion, a Top 10 movie of 2014, and should garner at least a best original screenplay Academy Award nomination. Stars Seth Rogen and James Franco are probably also due at least a standing ovation from the Academy for being both brave enough, and clever enough, to pull this movie off, in spite of the ineptitude and cowardice displayed by Sony’s corporate honchos.

So if you’ve been thinking, for Pete’s Sake, this is another Rogen/Franco film, it’s just not that big of a deal for anyone to get worked up over, you’d be wrong. The politics, and the political satire, are spot on and downright prescient in light of the shit-storm stirred up by the film’s release. The real buffoons, in addition to Sony’s IT Department, are Sony’s executives, who lacked the presence of mind and fortitude to back up this production.

Sony failed to exhibit the strength of character to go to bat for The Interview and the people who made it work: Rogen, Co-Director Evan Goldberg, Franco, a largely excellent, no-name cast and screenwriter Dan Sterling. Sterling has written a film that’s clever, full of funny bits and memorable catchphrases.

There must have been someone behind the scenes saying: “It’s wrong to cave in to this pressure. We’ve got to be stronger.” If so, that person needs to be higher up the Sony Food Chain. The Interview hits all the right notes as a mainstream comedy, and an edgy, subversive piece of political satire. We are living an age where studios are afraid to produce political films, and, in the case of this $44 million feature, afraid to stand behind a great political comedy once they’ve made one.

Maybe it was the distributors who backed out due to threat of terrorism. Maybe it was the lawyers afraid of the corporate liability implied by those threats, regardless of the likelihood they would be carried out. Having seen The Interview for myself, knowing what it is, not just what people are saying about it, it’s painfully clear that Sony Entertainment took the most cowardly approach conceivable, enabling what may or may not have been North Korea to effectively censor their excellent release.

What Sony should have said, Distributors or no:

The Interview is funny, wickedly clever, and we stand behind it. It’s about manipulating people and popular opinion through the media, and if we as a media company don’t stand behind for our right to show this excellent film to you, we are providing aid and comfort to those who would manipulate us with lies and fear. We’re releasing this film because that’s how we do it in America.

Apparently that’s not how they do it at Sony Pictures. Grow a spine, Sony. Your film was worth going to bat for. How come you didn’t know that?

At the end of my brief, brutal days in the film biz, one conclusion I drew about the way Hollywood Studios conduct their affairs is that they live precariously by the adage: “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.” No one who’s ever worked in the The Industry has ever accused studios of thinking too far ahead. Bottom line and just plain bad decision-making left rank and file workers to patiently sit on our hands, waiting for things to break. Last week the Sony Corporation found out just how costly such re-active thinking can be.

Luckily, we have a statement on the record from a high-ranking Sony official letting us in on his approach to Data Security. In the category, “Boy I Wish I Hadn’t Said That,” belongs this quote by the executive in charge of keeping Sony Corp’s voluminous digital assets safe and secure in response to an audit that found the company had a weak password problem:

“It’s a valid business decision to accept the risk,” said Jason Spaltro, who is now Sony Pictures’ senior vice president of information security, in a 2007 interview with CIO. “I will not invest $10 million to avoid a possible $1 million loss.”

Let this serve as a reminder that short-sightedness, an epic ability to under-estimate value, and demonstrably poor business decision-making is crystallized forever by the miracle that is The Internet. Yes it was a few years later, but even then, might the totality of Sony’s digital assets be worth north of $1 million? North of $1 billion? A stone thrown in a glass house if there ever was one.

According to information released following the hack, Mr. Spaltro makes $300,000 in salary per year, but I don’t think he’s going to reach his bonus target of $400,000. Not this year.

But weak passwords were only part of the story of “The Hack Heard Round the World.” Alongside a torrent of Sony Hack stories impacting nearly every information category except Sports, we know that Anonymous hacked into Sony’s network back in 2011. In addition to troves of data swiped from Sony these last few weeks – executive and talent salary information, shooting scripts for major films, and e-mails containing revelations ranging from salacious to downright embarrassing – hackers snagged numerous files from individual users labeled Password.doc.

In other words, Sony employees served up documents containing lists of passwords, key chains full of keys the hackers can use to open all kinds of doors inside and outside the kingdom. Ouch. That’s a glitch that will keep on giving.

Knowing how studio bureaucracies operate when it comes to Security, both as a film studio employee in the early 90s, and as a Product Manager and strategist at Symantec Corporation from 1995-2005, I predict there will be a last minute revision to Sony’s budget next year shifting a few more dollars into the IT Group. Whatever brownie points Mr. Spaltro’s group may have earned in years past by keeping costs down will probably be used up and then some as 2014 turns into 2015. You’d think Sony and its internal security detail will learn a thing or two from this one.

But you never know. Businesses don’t like to spend money on non-revenue generating items, and Entertainment Companies usually require catastrophe-level events or worse to budget expenses that impact the bottom line without dollars promised in return. Ask anyone who works in Tech Support, Customer Service, and in some cases, Quality Assurance. There’s never enough dollars to properly fund these groups, anywhere. Prepare for some breakage.

The Hack most certainly qualifies as catastrophe-level, but if the content of Sony e-mails is any indication, upper management has more than its share of idiots, assholes, two-faced fuckwads, and just plain bad decision-makers, even for a Hollywood Film Studio. Using Mr. Spaltro’s logic above: Hey, Sony has already suffered the worst hack in the history of Information Security. Why spend money on IT? They can’t possibly get any worse at this…

I’m not saying that logic makes sense. But I am saying over the years I’ve worked at or with more than one international entertainment company that thinks that way. And I wonder whose heads will be rolling in the aftermath.

There will also be an obligatory employee memo, or series of memos, with updated security procedures likely to contain some choice words about choices like Password.doc. And once a full report is filed, they will likely find, as most companies do, that the lion’s share of damage was a direct result of human error by way of social engineering. Yes, it takes technical skill to carry out something this big, but the human element is a major part of the picture. Always. Just read that quote by the head of Sony IT. Either he really thought that way, or his boss did. Or they both did.

So now we know the What (legendary hack), the When (likely starting in 2011 or even before, and culminating in November 2014), and the Where (Sony Corp’s network). Let’s take a look at the Why, the How, and the Who.

If you take the FBI’s findings at its word (and why would you?), the likely answers are: “The Interview”, by way of networks in North Korea and/or Northern China (better access in China), and employees of or contractors for the North Korean government.

However, there are lots of reasons to question whether North Korea really did perpetrate The Hack, not least of which are the numerous perceived inadequacies of the rogue nation-state. Given the agitation generated by “The Interview”, it sure wouldn’t be difficult to make it look like North Korea did it. Easier for an accomplished hacker to frame them than it would have been for North Korea to have actually done it. Unless Kim Jong-un has some world class hackers in his Rolodex.

Articles on this question are beginning to pop up, including this one from Wired that I found because I’ve been having trouble believing that The Hack is a North Korea Joint: http://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-of-north-korea-hack-is-thin/.

In light of Sunday’s Anonymous Announcement, that they hacked the Sony network in 2011 and told Sony that they did it (in addition to hinting that they have a copy of “The Interview” and plan to release it themselves on Christmas), some Simpler Theories are evolving. It seems more likely that either some Hacktivist entity opened the gates, then passed off to one or more organizations which may or may not be related to the North Korean government.

It also seems unlikely that on one hand the hacker that broke into the system takes credit for the hack, referencing the name Guardians of Peace (GOP), but the North Korean government denies involvement. If the North Korean government is behind it, but they don’t want to take credit, why would they want an entity they hired to leave a name along with a motive leading right back to them? Because they’re inept? If you follow that line of reasoning, how were they “ept” enough to perpetrate the most humongous hack of all time?

There’s more to this than meets the eye. It’s likely we’ll hear more about The Hack, who did it, how and why in the near future. And while my preference is not to blame the victim, especially when the stakes are so high and the losses so great, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that when more is known, Sony will ultimately accept (or wrongly avoid) significant responsibility for what happened.

The trail of information leading up to The Hack point to far too many deficiencies in Sony Studio’s Security policies, strategies and leadership. Because of this, it’s likely that the consequences could have been reduced significantly under a more proactive, better funded, and/or more talented security team. For starters, the Sony IT Executive under-estimated the value of his own job and the assets he was hired to protect. And he did it on the record.

If the company knew that it had been breached before, it should have investigated the hack in 2011, reinforced firewalls, revised security protocols and best practices, including advising against Password.doc. You can monitor traffic in and out of a corporate network. If data is flowing out unsupervised, at weird hours, in high volume, or to suspicious IP addresses, you can do something about it. Clever naming practices, complex data organization and infrastructure, obfuscation measures and red herrings can protect assets like critical e-mails, financial information, and James Bond scripts. Wasn’t anyone watching the gates?

Sure it’s easier to call out a solution, or to point fingers in hindsight. But the job of the Security Professional is to be Proactive. If it ain’t broke, and it matters to you, you should be trying to break it from just about every angle to avoid having an outsider break it first. Fixing a mess like this is never a pleasant task.

And whatever you do, if breakage might be a problem for you, even if your boss, your boss’ boss, and your boss’, boss’ boss tells you that you’re not going to get the money you need to secure the digital assets of your multi-billion dollar corporation, never, ever, ever go on the record saying that your half-ass, penny-wise, pound-foolish IT non-strategy is an acceptable business risk. It’s like telling the army attacking your castle that you’ve decided not to fill the moat and that the Southern wall is made of paper mâché. You might as well be leaving the door open, ringing a bell and saying: “Come and get it!!”

Just finished watching the series Finale of The Newsroom for the second time, and trying to hold it together, unlike during the first viewing earlier tonight which had me crying tears of sadness and joy. Mostly sadness. The ending, as most show finales are, was bittersweet. No spoilers here, but many questions were answered, mysteries solved, and the stories behind the stories were told.

Say what you want about the series, its transparent idealism, and its creator Aaron Sorkin, but a very strong argument can be made that Mr. Sorkin is the best and most prolific American dramatic writer of the Twenty-First Century. Check his resume here in case you need a rundown: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/?ref_=nv_sr_1. Sorkin is also a patriot in his own unorthodox way, and trying to make good on his promise to make the world, from the platform as America’s finest scribe, and his country a better place by way of dramatic fiction.

Through the tears, I’m trying to understand why the final beats of this show’s heart have touched me so deeply. Certainly the references to Don Quixote and the would-be knight always tilting at windmills resonate profoundly. The triangulated conflict between telling the truth, the common good, and the wheels of commerce are at the core of nearly each story arc. Arcs so neatly completed in the final handful of shows. Including some stories we didn’t even know were arcing.

As someone who spent several powerful, formative years as a journalist and decided not to pursue it as a career for precisely the reasons this show delineated, I relate to many of these characters. The happier of the endings were certainly the reason behind the joyful side of my emotions.

I was pleased by the optimistic moments for many of the characters which played out in this finale. And I can see that, were this somehow for real, and were we to be able to witness the day after the series finale in each of their fictional existences, each one would be subject to more of the absurd challenges and just plain bullshit that we as Americans face in this more than messed up country of ours.

Inspired by The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin and his deep and complicated form of patriotism which I share, I also feel compelled to focus on the sadness behind my tears in the hopes that it will further inspire you, and me, to keep up the fight of these fictional Don Quixotes, tilting at windmills under the constant promise of being pummeled as its reward.

The triggering event of the show, a popular news anchor lets loose his frustration over a country for which he is a face and a voice, and yet can’t say a damn thing to the millions of people he looks into the camera and speaks directly to each and every weeknight. “America isn’t the greatest country in the world,” he roars, to a recent college graduate looking for a little hope as she faces the grim world into which she has matriculated.

First of all, you can’t say that, especially when you are a well-paid cable anchorman and the face of your network. Second of all, it’s true. Hence the root of the sadness, and the hope that I can continue to reach for the inspiration to keep trying to make a difference when there are so many people and institutions making a difference in what I view as the opposite direction.

For example:

The alarming rate of school shootings that continue with absolutely no government response while the NRA peddles guns in their wake, perpetuating a vicious cycle.

The new stop-gap spending bill passed yesterday, necessary to prevent the country from grinding to a halt which contrarily saw Congress codify tons of pork, including several laws literally written by the banking industry that will lead us down the exact road we took to the financial meltdown of 2008.

A preponderance of talking heads appearing on the Sunday news shows discussing how the Torture Report was partisan, that the ends (though it was shown that torture had nothing to do with those ends) justifies the barbaric means, and, in the words of American Vice President, Military-Industrial CEO and not-as-yet-convicted war criminal Dick Cheney, “A load of crap” and “I’d do it again in a minute.” We built this country to get away from people like him. Even John McCain agrees: Un-American. It’s indefensible on every level. Sorry, Dick.

Because there’s plenty of blame to go around, wondering why President Hope seems so curiously behind that which he had railed against on his way to higher office, and wishing he would say and do more when certain values are being trampled.

And, following the unprecedented failings of his brother George W., Jeb Bush is ready to initiate his ascension to become the third person from one of the most inept American aristocracies in our history, escalating onward to the highest office in the land.

AMERICA – CAN WE PLEASE START LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES?!!?

I love ya, U.S. of A., but I’m getting tired of the S.O.B. leading us down a garden path to hatred, scorn and death. And I’m wondering how long we can keep getting away with horrific, international lawlessness without further repercussions. Not that there haven’t been repercussions aplenty thus far.

I share Mr. Sorkin’s frustrations – as voiced by anchor Will McAvoy, News Director Charlie Skinner and the Newsroom’s characters – and I’m struggling to generate the optimism required to face these frustrations day to day because I am surrounded by so many Americans who don’t know and don’t care in addition to being severely un-, under-, or mis-informed.

I’m doing my best to walk my walk, in addition to talking my talk. And I’ll continue to tilt at windmills, in spite of the potential to get my ass whooped, but part of me wishes all this unnecessary death, destruction and pain wasn’t so…inevitable.

In conclusion, I’d like to pay my respects and wish Godspeed to all who have attempted in their way to join the good fight. On better days, the sun shines on us all, and even impossible dreams seem possible.

Let’s be unwilling to take our eyes off of the double-speakers, the corporate-swindlers, and the paid, government operatives who would happily torture innocent people to be able to claim that when they torture criminals it’s for the sake of our country. Torture is a means to its own end, and the torturer IS the criminal. Some people simply like to torture, and some of those people have spent far too long steering the ship.

Things can get confusing out here. Here’s to the handful of ingenious gentlemen and gentlewomen willing to take a closer look in hopes of righting one or more of this world’s wrongs. We need ever more tilters, and more daydream delusions to keep us tilting, because this country and our world sure won’t be running out of windmills anytime soon.

Present, Past & Archives

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